IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17922.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who You Gonna Call? Gender Inequality in External Demands for Parental Involvement

Author

Listed:
  • Buzard, Kristy

    (Syracuse University)

  • Gee, Laura Katherine

    (Tufts University)

  • Stoddard, Olga B.

    (Brigham Young University)

Abstract

Gender imbalance in time spent on child rearing causes gender inequalities in labor market outcomes, human capital accumulation, and economic mobility. We conduct a large-scale field experiment with a near-universe of US schools to investigate a potential source of this inequality: external demands for parental involvement. Schools receive an email from a fictitious two-parent household with a general inquiry and are asked to call one of the parents back. Mothers are 1.4 times more likely than fathers to be contacted. We decompose this inequality into discrimination stemming from differential beliefs about parents’ responsiveness versus other factors and demonstrate that the gender gap in external demands is associated with various measures of gender norms. We also show that signaling father's availability substantially changes the gender pattern of callbacks. Our findings underscore a process through which agents outside the household contribute to within-household gender inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Buzard, Kristy & Gee, Laura Katherine & Stoddard, Olga B., 2025. "Who You Gonna Call? Gender Inequality in External Demands for Parental Involvement," IZA Discussion Papers 17922, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17922
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17922.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gema Zamarro & María J. Prados, 2021. "Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 11-40, March.
    2. Moira Daly & Fane Groes, 2017. "Who takes the child to the doctor? Mom, pretty much all of the time," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(17), pages 1267-1276, October.
    3. Devah Pager, 2007. "The Use of Field Experiments for Studies of Employment Discrimination: Contributions, Critiques, and Directions for the Future," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 609(1), pages 104-133, January.
    4. Peter Bergman & Isaac McFarlin Jr., 2018. "Education for All? A Nationwide Audit Study of School Choice," NBER Working Papers 25396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cantet, Natalia & Feld, Brian & Hernández, Mónica, 2024. "Is there discrimination against children of same-sex households? Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    7. Ali Ahmed & Mats Hammarstedt & Karl Karlsson, 2021. "Do schools discriminate against children with disabilities? A field experiment in Sweden," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 3-16, January.
    8. Gary Charness & Anya Samek & Jeroen Ven, 2022. "What is considered deception in experimental economics?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 385-412, April.
    9. Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Meix-Llop, Enric, 2016. "Do schools discriminate against homosexual parents? Evidence from a randomized correspondence experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 133-142.
    10. Amanda Agan & Sonja Starr, 2018. "Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 191-235.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cantet, Natalia & Feld, Brian & Hernández, Mónica, 2024. "Is there discrimination against children of same-sex households? Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Luis Diaz-Serrano & Sabine Flamand, 2023. "Attitudes towards single parents’ children in private and state-dependent private schools: experimental evidence," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 223-242, June.
    3. Ahmed, Ali & Hammarstedt, Mats & Karlsson, Karl, 2020. "Do Swedish Schools Discriminate against Children with Disabilities?," Working Paper Series 1330, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Martinez de Lafuente, David, 2021. "Cultural Assimilation and Ethnic Discrimination: An Audit Study with Schools," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Christopher T. Bennett, 2023. "Labor Market Returns to MBAs From Less‐Selective Universities: Evidence From a Field Experiment During COVID‐19," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 525-551, March.
    6. Giordani, Paolo & Jacobson, Tor & Schedvin, Erik von & Villani, Mattias, 2014. "Taking the Twists into Account: Predicting Firm Bankruptcy Risk with Splines of Financial Ratios," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1071-1099, August.
    7. Stephan Heblich & Stephen J Redding & Daniel M Sturm, 2020. "The Making of the Modern Metropolis: Evidence from London," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 2059-2133.
    8. Magdalena Osinska & Kinga Wasilewska, 2020. "Students’ Attitudes Towards Savings and Investment: The Case of Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 1068-1085.
    9. repec:shn:wpaper:2014-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Ferdinando Monte & Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2018. "Commuting, Migration, and Local Employment Elasticities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3855-3890, December.
    11. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2023. "Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment," Working Papers 225, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    12. Wong, Maisy, 2010. "The Relationship between Marginal Willingness-to-Pay in the Hedonic and Discrete Choice Models," MPRA Paper 51218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    14. Park, Byeong U. & Simar, Léopold & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2017. "Nonparametric estimation of dynamic discrete choice models for time series data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 97-120.
    15. William H. Sandholm, 2005. "Negative Externalities and Evolutionary Implementation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 885-915.
    16. Nicolás Ajzenman & Bruno Ferman & Sant’Anna Pedro C., 2023. "Discrimination in the Formation of Academic Networks: A Field Experiment on #EconTwitter," Working Papers 235, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    17. Wilson, Jessica & Demou, Evangelia & Kromydas, Theocharis, 2024. "COVID-19 lockdowns and working women's mental health: Does motherhood and size of workplace matter? A comparative analysis using understanding society," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    18. Harbatkin, Erica & Strunk, Katharine O. & McIlwain, Aliyah, 2023. "School turnaround in a pandemic: An examination of the outsized implications of COVID-19 on low-performing turnaround schools, districts, and their communities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    19. Jacques Wels, & Booth, Charlotte & Wielgoszewska, Bożena & Green, Michael J. & Di Gessa, Giorgio & Huggins, Charlotte F. & Griffith, Gareth J. & Kwong, Alex S.F. & Bowyer, Ruth C.E. & Maddock, Jane & , 2022. "Mental and social wellbeing and the UK coronavirus job retention scheme: Evidence from nine longitudinal studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    20. Du, Hua & Han, Qi & de Vries, Bauke & Sun, Jun, 2024. "Community solar PV adoption in residential apartment buildings: A case study on influencing factors and incentive measures in Wuhan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 354(PA).
    21. Villas-Boas, Sofia B & Taylor, Rebecca & Krovetz, Hannah, 2016. "Willingness to Pay for Low Water Footprint Food Choices During Drought," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt9vh3x180, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17922. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.